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Friday, June 8, 2018

The opioid problem now isn't so much about doctors and legitimate prescriptions. It's about illegal drugs entering through our border with Mexico.

Most
fentanyl comes from Sinaloa Cartel

In 2014, 8 pounds of
fentanyl from Mexico was seized by US border agents in the Southwest; in 2015,
200 pounds of fentanyl was seized. From October 2016 to August 2017, about 950
pounds of fentanyl was seized nationwide — and more than half of it (550
pounds) was seized at the San Diego and Tucson field offices on the Mexico
border.

My sheriff office
led the largest drug bust ($2 billion) in Arizona history against Mexico’s
Sinaloa Cartel. Most people are unaware of the routes, the market, the
quantities, the potencies, the purity and the lethality of these counterfeit
drugs – but those facts are staggering.

The
Drug Enforcement Agency reports that:

Fentanyl can be 50
times as potent as heroin.

Even the smallest amount
– about 2 milligrams, or about 4 grains of salt – is deadly.

Its chemical cousin,
carfentanil, is even more deadly — just a single grain can kill.

Domestic
prescriptions aren't the problem

Congress has looked at
doctors and prescription abuse and addressed issues there, but illegal sourcing
has been ignored. According to the U.S. Health and Human Services, every day
116 people die from opioid-related drug overdoses. In 2016, 42,249 people died
from opioid overdoses — but a majority of those were caused by illegal
synthetic opioids like fentanyl.

Over the last several
years, the availability of controlled prescription drugs, and overdose deaths
from prescription opioids alone, has declined significantly with federal and
state policy interventions.

The closure of illegal
clinics allowing prescription opioids on the black market, and efforts by
medical professionals to engage in responsible prescribing practices, have made
rapid improvements.

Prescription
drugs are not the cause of abuse

Abuse of prescription
drugs has long been blamed for causing this crisis, but today the data shows
that is no longer true. It is time to update our efforts. [Prescriptions
decreased each year for the past 5.Of
all the millions of scripts written only 2-3 percent of recipients abuse the
drugs.Depending on length of use one
can become dependent without abuse under doctors care]

The problem now is not
doctors and legitimate prescriptions. It is criminals and illegal drugs. These
illegal drugs are being trafficked into the U.S. by criminal smugglers
primarily from Mexico and China. Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, the criminal
enterprise once led by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, is a driving force in the
surge in fentanyl crossing the border.

Currently, 80 percent
of the illegal fentanyl seized by the DEA has been traced to Mexico’s Sinaloa
Cartel. Illegal opioids are being imported into our country through and from
Mexico on a daily basis. These are being sourced by Chinese factories and
Mexican cartels.

These highly addictive
and very potent synthetic opioids now kill Americans every day, and the death
toll keeps rising.

It is time for
congressional hearings on this aspect of the opioid crises. It’s not enough to
look at domestic production, physician prescription practices and pharmacy
record keeping. We need to address the real problem at the source — our open
border and the illegally manufactured and criminally trafficked drugs that cross
it.

Our nation needs
congressional hearings on how easily illegal fentanyl from Mexico and China is
slipping across our borders and harming Americans. I urge the House and Senate
to convene hearings and flesh out the facts here.

65 comments:

I feel like this aritcle is useless and telling us what we already know. Sounds like a bill o'riley topic or something from Fox. Im kinda disappointed in you chivis for publishing this. Not that im for these drugs it just sounds like a broken record. Just my opinion though

Thank you Chivis for this small report. I was wondering myself how it all was going with the prescription part because of all the media focus on it and not on the illegal dope trade anymore. It does make sense that the high overdose rate is due to fent/carfentanyle because most addicts want to get high not die. Its's just that the availability of precurser chemicals and insane profit margins make it easy money. From what i hear, alot on BB, they just bust loads that are thrown, or are lucky. The amount of legal trade across the fronteir is astounding; trains, trucking, individual cars. I cannot imagine the professional temptations and pressure, it would create for even honest people(i still think most people try to be good, dumb huh?) Who work on both sides of the border. Slipping a load of dope amidst 1000's of truck crossings daily can't be that difficult to someone in the know. And that is how we get to THE PROBLEM, most folks in the US, away from the border states have little idea what it is actually like. They have been 'educated' by school & their media to believe the USA is invincible so they pay little attention until something happens, and by then its often too late. Remember in the eighties, folks who worried about central american lawlessness and destabilization were hushed with the Mexican Buffer theory-that Mexico served as a buffer between the Central American Death squads and ensuing social chaos and the USA. Well now its next door folks.

We know what is fueling the opiod crisis here but why is the question???The reason is that people that consume drugs are weak minded fools that for the sake of a thrill or experience begin consuming drugs in the first place! When first trying any illicit drug out they often times concider it as a right of passage of sorts or a phase like simply because a person is in college now this drug experimenting must happen. The thought of being one of the "popular" kids plays a role as well.Illegal drug consumption is nothing new however since the hippie generation experimented with weed and or hallucenogens more than most historians would like to admit. More than likely their kids and then their grandkids do this once again as a rite of passage seeing their progenitors as examples.Once again it is easier to blame the cartels instead of ourselves however for the crisis yet history only keeps repeating itself and or getting worse because of this!

Addiction to love or to drugs or to a weak person turn the strongest people into weaklings in body and mind, mexican drug cartels did not even exist when the CIA was developing their cocaine drug trafficking to the US and crack for the masses, after the Vietnam War dried up their Heroin business...--Becoming the richest country in the world takes a lot of work, not all of it honest or saintly...

Phelpso. Do you work in the med field or do you just talk shit?Suburbia USA also known as middlee class America is where addiction is growing and becoming more common. I, doubt that with all those mental health problems you mention people have as a reason to choose to begin taking drugs these users can afford to live in the suburbs..The truth is you think ALL people are innocent of taking drugs which is probably not even true in more than 70npercent of people just like most police forces which is the cause of the failed drug policy we have in this country.

Phelpso. Like it was mentioned. A pshycologist said that 80 percent of people in drug facilities are drug addicts or recovering drug addicts. These are not schizophrenic people or bi polar people or people that got raped or soldiers or people that had a rough life. This means most people CHOOSE to consume drugs on their own.

Phelpso you are just blabering about every possible scenario where people have been known to consume drugs. How about adding the baby that was born to an addicted mother while you are at it smart guy?The truth is the people you mention probably do not account for even half the addicts in this country. Most where self introduced to addiction as far as I, have experienced. Unless you have statistics that show otherwise I, cannot agree with your rambling.

You are correct, it has effected middle class america. But saying all these addicts stay in middle class America isn't true. A lot end up on the street, surviving on disability, theft, and pan handling.

I never said ALL addicts suffer from mental health issues. I said those are the faces of MOST addicts. IE people with one kind of physical and/or mental health issue.

I never said that ALL people who do drugs are innocent, because they arent. Everyone needs to take personal accountability with all actions they take in life.

But saying someone is weak minded because they are unable to get off drugs is ignorant and comes from a lack of understanding. And to answer the question on do i think addiction is a disease. No i dont, that's a cop out. But the majority of the time addiction(not recreational drug abuse) stems from one kind of physical and/or mental health issue or another.

6:57 - I already agreed with you on that post. I just forgot to sign my name. You said

"I, was told by a pshycologist once that drug addicts or recovering account for 80 percent of patients to mental health facilities. I, happen to see a link between mental help patients and drug usage."

I dont see how that differs from what i said? Most addicts suffer from mental health issues. I said in response to your other comment that in my experience between 65-70 percent of people in mental health facilities suffer from addiction. And of course everyone that isn't getting a needle jammed into their arm forcibly by someone else is choosing to consume drugs. But saying someone that suffers from mental/physical health issues and is having a hard time getting/staying clean is weak minded, is pretty inconsiderate.

4:11 - Alright, i get im rambling with this. But those scenario's are more common with addicts than one might think. Just because every addict isn't out their flaunting their issues doesn't mean they dont exist. Every scenario i posted was the story of someone i was in rehab with. I've been clean for almost 5 years now. But from what I've experienced both being in rehab, and for my current line of work. You are allowed a window into people's life when they are able to be vulnerable, without fear of judgment. Things that most people dont see.

Im not saying everyone with mental/physical health issues is an addict. Im not saying every addict has mental/physical health issues. Im not saying that addicts dont need to take personal accountability, because they do.

What i am saying is, getting off drugs isn't as simple as someone that's never experienced addiction might think. Its true you have to REALLY want it if you are to get clean. But struggling to get and stay clean doesn't mean someones weak minded. Everyone's physical and mental make up are different so throwing all addicts into the "weak minded" bucket is wrong.

Here are the statistics. In 2014 roughly 40% of addicts had dual diagnosis. Keep in mind, the study doesn't account for people with physical ailments.

Sounds like the check from Big Pharma cleared. So what about the root cause that lead to addiction? Suddenly all those that started out with prescription drugs got healed and things are fine and these new drugs a creating a new class of addiction? The story never was that prescription drugs were the only reason, it was always about them being the entry drug. And you say Congress has dealt with it. Or really? I can’t recall a big Pharma exec going to jail, like any of the thousands of low level dealers.

Thank you Chivis ! We MUST keep hammering this home. Also, alot of the illicit drug users, which I am in NO way condoning, do not intend to kill themselves with Fentanyl laced drugs. Some are victims too of unknowingly ingesting/ injecting it.Even Fentanyl has legitimate medical uses, especially in hospital settings.

True indeed. The problem is prohibition which allows these cartels to exist & maximize profits at the expense of their consumers much like happened w/ gangs & alcohol prohibition. they'd maximize their profits by adding all kinds of inexpensive additives which caused blindness & death & the reason it no longer happens is becuase we've legalized & regulated alcohol sales.

maybe instead of blaming others we should take a look at ourselves the CDS would be smuggling anything into the country if people did not want them to instead of locking people up we should look at the demand and maybe legalize drugs so people can get what they need through a pharmacy or a legit outlet think how much it would help the economy and jobs also it would help take away the stigma and maybe people would know how to help someone who has overdosed

I agree that the legitimate sources are under control but it was originally started by them but the customers went 'underground' so to speak.In other words they never stopped using which was more or less supposed to happen and I do know people that were cut off of opiods and offered medical pot and stopped right there and then and that's probably also what happened with most of the older folk in their 60's and 70's that also had prescriptions but then there was the other category that went elsewhere to the black market and lo and behold the Mexicans and Chinese were right there with supply in hand when needed.It would be really interesting to know the statistics of people that stopped after no more legit stuff to what percentage that turned to the black market.Is it about 50/50 or 90/10?Of course we will never know.It would certainly give authorities of how big the black market for opiods is but I'm sure they have a good idea from the busts and how much they have increased year over year or is possibly the increase due to brand new users that never had any legitimate doctor RX's before?In other words is having a steady black market supply creating a new demand with new users that wasn't there before?Food for thought.

Not accurate. Only a small amt of overall patients abuse RX pain meds. The problem is the gov combined numbers together. Street drugs is the issue and should be separate.

Recently a doc of my aunt told me he is given a difficult time prescribing for those who need it, even post op, chronic and terminal illnesses, because of the government lumping street and rx drugs together when accessing.

BTW GW is about to be the first pharma co getting FDA approval for a cannabis derived medication

Giving pain medications for the hell of it was THE BUSINESS, and the more customers defrauding their insurance companies or the government was their business, they also sought customers and addicted more than a few that are now illegal consummers, the legal opioid also went underground by design to keep reaping profits everywhich way.If Medicinal Grifa works, (which I don't know), I don't see the need for perfectly sane people to get started on it, and kept supplied all the way to their next drug of medicinal choice, the future of the medicinal drug business for fun or pleasure depends on addicting the young drug addict scholar phylosophers of the future, and need no defending.

I work in the medical field and have worked in it for twenty five years... A very large percent of patients do abuse their prescription for pain meds....They run out of pills several days before they are supposed to because they take more than is prescribed...these patients we work with range in age from forty to eighty.... I do not see them as heroine users but they do abuse their Rx meds and they do doctor “shop”... sixty year old Grandmom’s change the numbered amount of pills on prescriptions by inking in a 1 in front of the 30 to change it to 130.... the pharmacist catch it and I get the call...the government may lump the numbers together to hide the problem regarding prescription meds, I guess... no disrespect Chivis but prescription pain meds are highly addictive and abused... a lot of opioid abuse is rx pain meds because the patients are addicts but don’t realize it, until the prescription isn’t refilled... these patients only will abuse pills and most would “never stick a needle in my arm” ... but they are pill seekers...

I didn’t say that... my response was in reference to “a small number of pts abuse their rx pain meds”... physically dependent to a drug is different from drug abuse and they are not animals... the percentage is low based on what study and what research?? I’ll gladly consider the education if you can provide it from a good source that isn’t biased...

OXY Prescription made legal by a Congress and Senate lobbied by hundreds of millions of dollars that presented Obama with a bill to sign approved by a majority of greedy or misguided legislators that do not even read the bills the sign, created a problem for Big Pharma.--Now that controls are in place, the addicts are still doing their thing on the street, still supplied by the illegal providers and owners of the prescription, they still sell legally on other countries tries, like China and Mexico, and have reported to their shareholders about it, they only use share holders to spread risk thin, like many other worldly crooks, but like with the crack epidemic, that shift rolled from above.Addicts are also hopeful for treatment, but that will happen after the politicos are done cutting the billion dollar budget for treatment among their buddies and supporters and political action commies, I mean "committees". --But what they DID will stick around for a looong time, and their foreign parnas keep supplying illegally, "through mexico"

Fentanyl does have its place in a hospital setting. Its all this illicit Fentanyl that's getting out of control. Not only is it extremely potent, but its half life acts in a way that makes users re-dose earlier than they should, increasing the chance of overdosing.

I broke my neck about almost 10 years ago and got addicted to opiates. As the story goes, they started off being prescribed, after 6-7 months i was cut off, then I started getting pills on the street, and inevitably ended up on the H. I was a highly functional addict, which made it harder to stop as i always had money and never had to beg, barrow, or steal, to support my habit. I feel very fortunate i ended my relationship with opiates before Fentanyl-cut opiates were really even a thing.

It's amazing/horrifying the way it rewires your brain like that.

But, as the saying goes "time heals all wounds", and although i really dont think this can be applied to all life experiences. It can certainly be applied to addiction. Luckily, the hedonic(reward) system within the brain DOES repair itself overtime. You just really have to want it.

Wow, what a story. Thanks for sharing. I myself have not gone down that road altho I have dealt with chronic pain most of my life. I have also witnessed MANY loved ones and acquaintances struggle endlessly with the battle and you are absolutely right, the ones who REALLY WANT IT are about the only ones that make it out.

I can relate due to an arterial blood clot to my hand.... arterial blood clots to an extremity HURT for a long time, until the capillaries regrow and supply oxygenated blood back to the area... stay strong...

heroine I’m not sure about how people know how much to take...but in a medical setting fentanyl is given in micrograms... there are 1000 micrograms in 1 milligram... the normal fentanyl dose for an adult is 50 to 100 micrograms... the normal dose for morphine is 2 to 6 milligrams... obviously if someone took 2 to 6 milligrams of Fentanyl thinking it was morphine, Houston we have a problem...the cartels are overdosing their clients...

Yaqui, 12:47, and 9:52 - Its my pleasure sharing! October 8th, 2013 was the day i finally broke down and decided i'd had enough. It hasn't always been easy, but it's been worth it!

9:52 - Dang, i can imagine that's gotta be painful! Glad you made it through that. As far as heroin dosage. Prior to all the fent cut stuff I'd say on average(in my experience) 100mg dose of heroin was generally the equivalent to 30-45mg of Oxycodone. In my case, i was using 60-150mg of oxy a day. When i switched to Heroin i started smoking 200-300mg a day. By the time i stopped i was using 1.5 to 2 grams a day. It was expensive, but i functioned at a high level, allowing me to retain a great job, and support my habit without infringing on my moral compass. How people know how much to use with all this fent stuff going on is beyond me.

Thx Phelpso... I lost fingertips before collateral blood flow developed but have good use of my hand... dilaudid did not work fentanyl did... a hurricane hit and all pharmacies were closed, no refills... if you even pulled in parking lot of a pharmacy you were met by the owner with a shotgun... bam withdrawals... I would’ve never done it but I could see how someone would throw a brick through the window for more meds...

GC - Dang, with the half life Fentanyl has, i can imagine those withdrawals were horrific. Dealing with a hurricane on top of that, i cant imagine! But yeah i hear ya, WD's are awful! I never did anything shady to support my habit. I'd assume go through withdrawals than break my moral compass. Ultimately, i always saw it as "this is my problem and it's not fair for me to put that on someone else".

Sucks you lost some finger tips, but im glad you have good use of your hand!

Man the dea loves to try patting themselves on that back/skewing the numbers etc- 2-3% "get addicted???" Ya rightAmd by closing all those "illegal clinics" they put a lot of good doctors and patients that were "playing by the rules" out on the street- Enter- fentynyl/illegal opiods- how the dea didnt figure this is exactly what would happen is hard to believe- they knew- only a total idiot wouldnt see this coming- dea is 100% to blame for all this garbage being on the streets- theyll never say that though-

The author of this article completely misses the the point with his call for increased border security. This is a separate issue from the fentanyl overdose epidemic.

Of course we need to continue to improve our border security and law enforcement operations against drug dealing organizations. But, fentanyl and its analogues from China are a difficult problem to address. Fentanyl is so potent that a birthday card sent from China can easily contain enough narcotic material to kill several people, and this method of receiving narcotics is cheaply and easily available on the 'dark web', even for children.

Fentanyl is easily manufactured using precursors with little or no control in China. One kilo of 4ANPP is used to make 25 kilos of fentanyl, enough for 12.5 MILLION fatal doses. This means that a 30 kilo load of 4ANNP would yield enough fentanyl doses to kill more people than live in the United States.

If we are unable to stop methamphetamine smuggling measured by the ton, how earth can border authorities stop a drug potent enough to be measured in kilos? This problem requires a level of public education and a hard look at reasons drug users want to get high, rather than lead productive lives.

the point of the post is saying creating strict changes that takes pain relief from patients who are well documented as requiring relief, it is counter productive. malfeasant and mis-targeting the problem. Oversight is good, but using it as a political football is wrong.

Very informative article but with all do respect, you’re way off in saying that Prescription Drugs aren’t the cause for the current Heroin Epidemic. There’s a clear correlation between the decline in prescription opioids and the increase in herion (in some cases laced with fentanyl) and fentanyl supplies. Heroin is much cheaper than most of the prescription pills on the street so it’s only natural that people would eventually move to this drug. Especially considering the US Gov’t crackdown on prescription pills and pill mills. Again, very informative article and if I misunderstood your point about prescription opioids not being the issue, my apologies. Keep up the good work.

Chivis, I’m a big fan of your work and respect all the information you put out for the masses. I very much appreciate all the information you provide but I do have to state that the prescription drug epidemic is the cause for the heroin/fentayl epidemic. There’s a clear correlation between the declining prescription opioids overdoses (even supplies for that matter largely in part due to the Government crackdown on Prescription pills and pill mills) and increase in heroin/fentayl overdoses. Another reason for the increase in herion/fentayl demand is due to the fact that it’s much cheaper than prescription pills. Again, this correlated to the lack of supplies of prescription pills due to government crackdowns.

I agree...a 30 mg oxy goes for $30-40....the same money.will get you 2-3 hits of H. It starts with pills. They take them..the # for abuse % seems way to low for scrips....It's a cottage industry in the NW. You sell your pills to buy more H...Sounds like a lobbyist for Big Pharma got those #'s skewed a bit. JMO

Illicit drugs are fueling addiction now, but that first addicting stino came strait from congressional approval, more than 100 million dollars for legislators, 120 000.00 dollars for rep Marino and 140 000.00 to 170 000.00 dollars for paragon of honesty Orrin Hatch...the Sackler family sure made off with billions of dollars from buying the government, privatizing insurers and government money gets easier when you align with the stars, the congressional stars...now the addicts get it where they can, new commissioneers the Mexican cartels, with offshored precursors and formulas.Too many people got misled, overwhelmed, bamboozled, and tricked into supporting the medicines for pain, with promises, other more evil knew better but the money muffled their conscience and clouded their judgement,etvs not whitewash their dirty deeds, after all Obama approved the "legislation", there you go, it doesn't pain me, recognizing our president's dirty deed, --I only wonder WHAT THE HELL HE, MISTER PRESIDENT OBAMA GOT FOR IT...

Recent news reports about two celebrities having committed suicide have caused quite a stirr on the causes of them. I, was told by a pshycologist once that drug addicts or recovering account for 80 percent of patients to mental health facilities. I, happen to see a link between mental help patients and drug usage.If education about drug usage was a priority here in the states perhaps there would be less suicides and less of a war on drugs and less people incarcerated as well as less resources spent on outdated ideas against illicit drugs that do not work!

7:50 - From personal experience I can tell you that mental health issues and self medicating go together like pees and carrots. It's definitely not everyone, but I'd agree with the psychologist. In my experience, about 65-70% that I knew of had addiction issues. Hell, there was one lady that was so addicted to cigarettes that she almost killed herself when trying to quit. She suffered from ptsd and they were what she used to cope.

7:50 education is not working, it takes a looong ass time to discover it doesn't on each case,More urgent measures are needed, like imprisoning the real kingpins behind it all, and confiscating all their money, maybe after a short grace period...

Fuck all the people putting fent on the street #1- but ESPECIALLY fuck all the people putting CARFENT on the streets...its not even about putting strong shit on the street- carfent will most likely kill you the 1st time you use it- at least with fent, theres a small window(?) Where most people with a habit/med-high tolerance will be ok- but theres usually always "hot spots" where the mix is totally off, and your screwed- Carfent serves no purpose to addicts- its clueless dealers trying to maximize profits- amd a lot of them are going to jail when their customers die-

I remember the open air markets putting FIRE out on the streets to get business- that at least made sense- theres a reason they call fent "the crack of opiates.." imo its garbage- and the days of someone picking up a key of straight fire h, without ANY fent in it, seem to be long gone#

Idk why this is so hard for the cartel/dealers to understand- a dead customer cannot bring you any more $$. And instead of people speeding over to whatever spot had the good/really powerfull h, their AVOIDING IT most of the time- it makes NO sense

@10:22 education is a long term permanent solution. Incarcerstion as well witnessed is a quick fix type non permanent solution as witnessed by the increasing amount of consumption here in the states?What part of this incarceration bit do you see that make you think it works???

@R Kelly........I have NEVER understood this “ business strategy”. Killing off the customers.....just plain STUPID, but as someone around here says: “ You can’t fix stupid”. Let’s face it humans are their own worst enemy, always have been, always will be.

alot of people are addicted to prescription drugs yet only a small number is reported because the majority of people will not aknowledge their addiction many believe that addiction applies mostly to street drugs and the majority believe that if you havent hit rock bottom, with mental issues in other words dont fit into the "crackhead look" then youre not an addict.

Drug addict Rodrigo "El Loco" Duterte LOOKS like a drug addict and a drug trafficker about to fall asleep standing, UT nobody attacks him, his chess board contains a tower of strenght, the Philippines cleaned around it out of ugly looking drug traffickers and addicts even if they were just broke assess without money to buy trump suits or Ivanka fashions...

As an individual who has actually experiences the effects of strong legal Rx dosages of Oxycontin (10mg 5x day) PLUS oral morphine (30mg 2x day) it takes strong strong willpower to not be seduced into habitual use. Every 10 days I forced myself to "dry out" go thirty hours without. Think it's easy? You can be the most convincing liar on the face of the earth when dealing with yourself. I call it "The ten thousand excuses ritual" I have to play "The A-Hole" with myself -- an inner war, similar to quitting smoking, but with a turbocharged effect "But I Hurt". People who have no idea of the amount of turmoil that must be undergone to not get a hook rammed into them, are just that, unaware. The only sensible way is to avoid it altogether. Not even try opioids. Don't go there. I have not taken opioids for seven years but due to s spinal injury that has worsened I am returning to legal Rx opioids next month. I can only pray that I can summon th courage to manage them like I did before.

Also, why isn't anyone attacking China for being responsible for most of the drugs around the world. Bath salts, meth precursors, heroin, many forms of synthetic psychedelics and psychoactives and synthetic cannabis, WORLD WIDE. All the harmful shit is coming from China, and every super power is licking China's soulless butthole. Is it out of fear of China? No, it's out of respect for the slave trading, drug trafficking, organised crime rampant success that is China. Narcos will be nothing without China's help.